1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer method and system for analyzing, critiquing and providing feedback on or for government legislation and legislative documents such as statutes (an enactment of a legislative body expressed in a formal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society), bills (a draft of a new act or a draft of an amendment to alter an existing act), by-laws (laws made by statutory authorities or local councils contain details necessary to carry out specific matters relating to the act), proposals (a response to written requirements issued by a government entity) or amendments (change or alteration to existing legislation or acts) or using a scoring methodology and working in conjunction with a document management system.
2. Description of Related Art
For the analysis of electronic legislation or legislative documents (i.e. statutes, bills, by-laws, proposals and amendments) created with personal computer word processing programs (e.g., Microsoft Word, TM files, HTML files, XML files, or any other type of ACSCII or binary data representing a document).
Legislation or legislative documents in their very nature are documents which call for analysis, interpretation, deliberation, agreement (oral or written), amending, clarification and dispute. The current method employed by our state, local and federal governments to determine if legislation is to be enacted requires that said legislative documents be reviewed, considered, accepted or amended by a legislature or governing body.
The inherent problem with the current method of analyzing government legislation or legislative documents is the current review, consideration and or analyzing process. The process is, in part, subjective in nature, and there is no fundamental basis for agreement by which this legislation or legislative documents are assessed. The process is derived from antiquated methods of interpreting text documents be they electronic or paperbound which uses very little if any advances in technology to aid lawmakers in understanding the quality, relevance, or overall content. In addition, the overall opinion of the legislation or legislative document is not determined numerically and therefore the feedback cannot be quantified. Any standards in place alternate between individuals (e.g. representatives, government representative, elected official, staff member (permanent and non-permanent), party secretary, aid, subscriber, etc.) and or entities (e.g. committees, legislative bodies, etc.) with the feedback about the legislation or legislative document given in verbal or text-written format. Therefore, the decision as to which direction the legislation or legislative document should proceed is a laborious process and often misguided.
The current method becomes more complicated when multiple individuals must merge feedback and opinions and come together in committees or legislative bodies to consider, amend and vote.
Another problem is the mere size and magnitude of the legislation and legislative documents being introduced to our legislative bodies, as it is often seen as overwhelming to elected officials who are required to read and understand the document. An example of this in U.S. congress was with the recent healthcare reform which exceeded over 1,990 pages. High-ranking elected officials stated that it was too laborious and overpowering to expect elected officials to read the entire healthcare reform bill, in its entirety before voting. Though most elected officials employ staffers to help read and determine their position on legislation, the mere size, confusion in wording and overwhelming content proves too much and too arduous using the outdated techniques employed by our governments today. In paperbound or electronic format there are currently no toolsets in use that are designed for the specific task of understanding and considering legislation.
It is assumed legislation and legislative documents are received both electronically and in paper format. It is assumed that electronic versions of these documents are stored in document management systems (i.e. a computer system or set of computer programs used to track and store electronic documents and/or images). The problem with this current method is while document management systems are solutions for storing, archiving and retrieving legislative documents, these systems do not offer solutions for obtaining or gathering Metadata (i.e. Data that describes, highlights and/or explains other data), as it relates to feedback, because the current method of assessing does not quantify feedback. Feedback is simply a text-written response or orally communicated.
The system is adapted to generate graphical and text images for providing a user interface between a legislative document and a user. The system uses a type of computer system (i.e. a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions), the internet (i.e. a vast number of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communication links. The interconnected computers exchange information using various services, such as electronic mail, and the World Wide Web (WWW)), intranet (i.e. a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information), or other network system to give users access to, but not limited to, the legislation or legislative document, reports, graphs, images, toolsets, and scoring tools.
The system is built to work within a web browser as a Software as a Service (SaaS) (i.e. a model of software development whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand) or as a desktop application (with internet or intranet functions) or within a computer network. At present, the most widely used web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer (an Internet browser from Microsoft), Safari (a web browser developed by Apple Inc.), and Firefox (a free web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation) of which there are several versions. Defined broadly, a web browser is an application that interprets and arranges sections (i.e. text, sound images, etc.) on a displayed web page so a user can see and interact with network content. Defined a bit more specifically, a browser is a software that interprets the programming language of the Internet into the text, graphics, sounds and effects (i.e. such as blinking, scrolling, etc.) that one sees when viewing a web page. A stand-alone desktop application further defined, is built to work independently of a network or server on a desktop or laptop computer. A computer network further defined is a system in which computers are connected to share information and resources.
The present invention can be implemented on a variety of devices with internet capabilities, such as personal computers, mobile devices, ultra-mobile devices, and e-readers and can be interfaced using a mouse, keyboard, keypad, digitizer, touch screen, and/or voice command.
The system assigns a unique identifier code to each piece of legislation or legislative document and to each user for identification and tracking purposes. Unique identifier codes are stored in the system database on the client/server-based computer system.
In the context of internet information exchange, the most important components are the graphical user interface (i.e. GUI) of the user's computer and the browser itself.
The system receives, stores and compiles information for both legislation and legislative documents and users within a system database (i.e. a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system). When the system receives a request from a user, the system compiles all information stored in association to the requested legislation or legislative document, and presents it to the user in graphical and text format.
Multiple scenarios are possible for implementing a system according to the present invention. For example, the system can be hosted on a shared server or a dedicated single server.
As used herein, “legislation or legislative document” can comprise one or more pieces government legislation such as statutes (an enactment of a legislative body expressed in a formal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society), bills (a draft of a new act or a draft of an amendment to alter an existing act), by-laws (laws made by statutory authorities or local councils contain details necessary to carry out specific matters relating to the act), proposals (a response to written requirements issued by a government entity) or amendments (change or alteration to existing legislation or acts).
As used herein, a “user” can also be defined as a government representative, elected official, staff member (permanent and non-permanent), representative, party secretary, aid, subscriber or anyone who has subscribed to the present invention or has been given access to the invention by a subscriber, and one who reads, reviews and or assess legislation or legislative documents.
The term “user's network” can be applied to an individual user, or a group of users within the same entity, and is intended to encompass a collection of two or more computers in electronic communication via common protocols. The system database offers a secure user network for accessing legislation or legislative documents on client/server-based computer system. Each user (or user's entity) has its own secure “user network” within the system database.
Document management systems have existed for managing various types of documents. Computer systems have existed for generating and maintaining system databases containing documents, pages, and other items. One popular computer-system implemented system database comprises a registry system in which a number of specific merchandise items are listed for a given party, and a user can select from the list of specific merchandise items. U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,206 to Strubb et al. discloses an electronic catalog which is updated at predetermined intervals. A user of the electronic catalog can enter data to facilitate the user's viewing of only particular, predetermined portions of an electronic catalog, according to the user's instructions. Another prior-art reference, U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,156 to Shavit et al., discloses a system for interactive on-line electronic communications and processing of business transactions between a plurality of different types of independent users.